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October 13, 2015

Battle Pizza Crust: Smitten Kitchen’s Rushed Crust

I know what you are thinking–does this girl make anything other than pizza and baked goods? I do–really–but dinner is often a rushed affair after school and work. Midday baking is so much more luxurious and blog worthy… I promise though–I do feed my children things other than muffins and cookies.

Most nights are busy but sometimes they are extra busy. We had parent teacher conferences at 5:30 and someone (me) forgot to make a pizza dough ahead of time. Oops. Smitten kitchen to the rescue! I’d seen her two doughs in her book last time I flipped through it. A rushed dinner seemed the perfect opportunity for the rushed dough recipe. With just 30 minutes of rise time, I could have dinner done in under an hour.

The dough was perfect–I made it in about 3 minutes as my mom and I chatted before she left. Just a few basic ingredients in this one.

After the rise, I was able to stretch this dough out into an amazingly thin crust. There weren’t any breaks though I did have some very thin spots that I patched a little. Mine was a little on the wet side but I didn’t want to add any flour and gave a sad dry crust, so I just let it be.

Top and bake! I always bake my pizzas on the cast iron pizza pan I keep in my oven. I use it for breads and pizzas to help give them a nice crust on the bottom.

This pizza was…amazing. Chewy, super thin, crispy in the right places. And fast! If you are in the mood for a thin crust pizza–this is your dough. Now I’m super curious to try out her other crust option that allows for a longer, less rushed rise time.

Rushed Pizza Crust

From Smitten Kitchen’s Cookbook

1/2 cup warm water

1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast

1 1/2 cups flour, plus more for rolling

1 tsp salt

olive oil, for coating bowl (I used cooking spray)

Turn your oven up to 200 degrees (or a warm setting if you have it) for 5 minutes. Then, turn it off.

Add water to large mixing bowl and sprinkle yeast over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes or until foamy. Add flour, followed by the salt, and stir with a wooden spoon until dough begins to come together. It will look sort of shaggy and rough but that is ok.

Turn dough and any loose bits out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it comes together and forms a smooth dough. It will only take a few minutes.

Coat the inside of a large mixing bowl with olive oil or cooking spray and then place dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and place in your oven (which you heated in step 1) and let rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

Once doubled, take it out of the oven and start preheating for your pizza baking temperature (I like 450). Remove the dough from bowl and roll dough out into your desired shape, top and bake.